7 Things That Convert Website Visitors into Customers

We talk a lot about websites (obviously!). One thing we haven’t really talked about though is how to make sure your business’ website not only attracts new customers but also creates returning ones.

If this sounds intriguing to you, read on! Here is what your website should have in order to ensure that visitors can become returning customers.

Mobile responsiveness

People are not only using desktop computers anymore. They’re also using mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones to access the Internet and find things they’re looking for. This means your website should be designed so that it is responsive, fast, and easy to use across multiple devices, not just the one.

If your site doesn’t respond well on mobile devices…come on, guys. It’s 2018. Catch up with the times already! If you need more reason to go mobile, we’ve gone over some good reasons in a separate article.

Fast & easy navigation

If it takes more than one click to find what you’re looking for, it’s one click too many. How would you feel if you were ready to buy something at the mall, but it required you to talk to several people before you could even reach the cash register? You’d feel frustrated and discouraged from shopping there, wouldn’t you?

This is the kind of situation you want to avoid when it comes to buying stuff from your website, or when contacting you, etc. You need to make navigation on your business’s website very easy for everyone, including yourself! Other things to avoid adding to your site’s navigation design is a lot of scrolling, pop-ups, and dropdown menus. If there absolutely needs to be a dropdown, then there should only be one sublevel, no more than that.

Content

We’re not just talking about the content you write and feature about your services. We’re talking about content that is dynamic and resonates with people. Some of the best content we’ve seen interacts with visitors; think polls, live box chats, and quizzes to name a few. This kind of content matters because it prompts visitors into action and it comes to them right at their fingertips.

The content on your website not only needs to be relevant to your site’s visitors, but also it needs to be fresh. New content is something search engines pick up on, and the promise of offering new content is something that can encourage people to come back.

We’ve talked about content a great deal for a lot of reasons. Blog posts, e-mail newsletters—these and more are great examples of what kind of content you should feature on your website, aside from the regular services pages. Check out our previous post for some more suggestions.

In addition to publishing fresh content on your site, it needs to be distributed across many channels and not just the one, such as e-mail and on social media. Otherwise, that content you slaved over producing won’t give you the desired results you’re looking for.

Calls to action

Fresh content is good and all, but if you really want people to convert into customers, a call to action is needed. This CTA should be visible immediately on the home page so visitors don’t have to search too hard for a long period of time.

Searching too long on a site results in visitors losing interest and bouncing off and away from the page. That’s why the CTA needs to be on the home page, so that it will encourage visitors to be more involved with the activities going on in your website.

However you want to be contacted, the information shouldn’t be too tough to find on your website. Ditto for search engines.

Simple web design

The days of featuring an overly complex website are long gone. Today, the simpler the design, the better the website is. Using old school elements of design such as 3D graphics and animation, while still usable, can render a website useless if it doesn’t suit the overall layout, and it may impact how fast your website loads (hint: these things can and will slow a site down—not recommended!).

A simple website means there is not too much clutter to distract your customers, nothing that slows down the site’s loading time, and no extra steps needed to get in touch with you or to buy a product or service.

Videos & images

You know how the saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. This applies not only to still images you could put up on your site, but videos too! Whether you choose still images or videos to showcase your product or yourself and what you can offer to customers, having imagery can help turn a would-be customer into an actual one. Images and videos can build trust, draw interest, and help customers find exactly what they’re looking for on your site—all good things!

Incentives

We need to tell you something: your website is not all about you. That’s not really what customers are looking for when they’re searching online. They’re looking for information or specific products, and they don’t want to spend a lot of money or time doing so. That means you need to offer an incentive on your website.

This incentive can be as simple as telling visitors why it’s worth their while to buy your product or hire you for your service. Ditch the jargon you may be used to saying on the job; they’re not specialized in the fields you are!

Other good incentives include offering a free trial, a discount to new customers for their first purchase, limited offers, and special sales to those specifically who follow you on Facebook or sign up for your e-mail newsletter. These are all good examples of incentives that encourage customers to visit and to get more involved with your business. Bonus points if your correspondence and response time to your customers is fast and timely!

All of these things can help transform a website from a plain, text-filled site to one that encourages customers to visit time and again. If this sounds like what you need for your website right now, let us know. Give us a call and we can help make this kind of website a reality for your business. You can consult with us one-on-one beforehand about how we can help make your website even better as well, whether it’s in need of a do-over or it needs to be built from scratch!